Starbucks opens shop overlooking Korean DMZ

Visitors to Aegibong Peace Ecopark have an extra reason to take in its observation tower: it now houses a Starbucks with views of the DMZ and North Korea.

SEOUL, South Korea — Starbucks, one of the world’s most recognizable, if sometimes tedious, symbols of global capitalism, has a knack for choosing unique spots to open coffee shops. A 1,200-year-old castle in the Prague houses one, an ancient former mosque in Cordoba another, and a decommissioned power station in London a third.

Their latest new venture is a foray into the last frontier of the Cold War — even as tensions between South Korea and its hermetic neighbor to the north have risen in recent years.

As of Friday, visitors to Aegibong Peace Ecopark near Gimpo, South Korea can take in the views across the demilitarized zone and the North Korean border.

Baek Hea-soon woke up at 4 a.m. on Friday and traveled from the nearby city of Gimpo — 30 miles northwest of Seoul — to be one of the first in a line of hundreds outside the coffeehouse’s latest outpost. 

“I wish I could share this tasty coffee with the people living in North Korea right in front of us,” Baek, 48, told Reuters, as she observed the front line of a conflict that has technically not ended. The two Koreas are still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/starbucks-korean-dmz-north-korea-kim-jong-un-rcna182210

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